That evening the towers were hit

Middleton Street. Kolkata. Behind the hotel and banquet centre that I worked in was a derelict building with six tenants who were stubbornly waiting for the right price to vacate. On some evenings, a person who was a fixer kinds arrived at my boss's office in the hotel and they sat together to do some calculations and strategies. Then, the fixer would go to the building behind and sit with one or the other tenant. These weren't rooms or shops. They were hovels with rats and snakes all around. But by some force of greed, they stayed there, hoping someone would someday give them a bag of cash. In fact, one of the tenants who used to work as a security guard in the Loreto House College nearby even kept telling me repeatedly, "Sir, please tell Babu that if he quotes a decent price I will wrap up and go off to gaon, in Bihar. Why would anyone want to stay here?" And brick by brick the building behind would continue to fall into ruin. Every week I could see steady deteriotion. I used to ask the boss if he was getting someone to do the deteriotion. He would laugh at me. But I had my suspicions. That day, again the fixer after some strategies at around 4.45 pm went off to visit a tenant and they started a discussion that somehow moved into an argument. Kolkata, you know. Arguments are common place. I had come out for something and overheard their loud accusations for a bit. Mild curiosity led me to understand that the tenant had actually agreed on the amount on cell and the fixer was now convincing him to go below the agreed amount as that amount was only applicable for that day some weeks back. I smiled inwardly at the strategies of my boss and came back into my office. As I stepped in, I could hear my boss yelling for me from the mezannine floor where he sat. I used to be in the ground floor. I rushed up the small stairs. He showed me the TV screen. The first tower had just been hit. He used to watch CNBC for the business news and they had showed it nearly live. I was stunned but quiet. The mind tried to assimilate. Though it was very far and I didn't have foreknowledge of who worked in NYC among friends and where, I still tried to remember all the Yahoo chat and mail conversations. Anybody among friends and relatives? As we kept seeing the screen, the second plane crashed into the second tower. Pandemonium. Bizarre. Even seeing it on screen was difficult. The boss was on the phone as he had relations in US. I didn't, not then. I stood and kept watching. Numerous things running through the head. And yesterday, late evening, it all came back as I finished the tenth episode of "The Looming Tower". Good docudramas have a way of creeping into your senses and bringing out those hidden memories. I now remember how I absent mindedly sat there at my desk for the next hour in the evening. Playing some games on my computer and surfing the net for all kinds of news on the tragedy. A tea on my desk cold and undrinkable. The doodle that I kept doing and how I avoided going home to the family for the next couple of hours of the evening. I know it's not 9/11 today. But there enough insanity around. So thought, a reminder is necessary.